Have a Merry Christmas - Leave the Go-rounds

I love the sights and sounds of Christmas - they light up the dark nights, warm up the cold air and spice up the quietness of the season. I love the holidays around Christmas - they give us time and room to wind down from a busy year, celebrate joyful moments with family and friends and create memories that last. Most of all, I love the person of Christmas -Jesus Christ our Saviour- he fills every detail of the season with wonders of his love. Isn't it lovely to watch children unwrap Christmas gifts, make snow men and have fun in the neighbourhood while parents and grown-ups seat by the fireplace to enjoy conversations and fellowship? Indeed, Christmas comes with lots of excitement.

Today, while reflecting on my well over 20 years of sending and receiving thoughtful Christmas love greetings and gifts from and to family and friends, one thing stood out clear to me: Unless I consciously leave the 'go-rounds' and step up to celebrate each Christmas with a mission, the routines of Christmas may quite simply rob me of the beautiful moments and JOY of Christmas. If you are 30 and over, you would have received at least 15 solid Christmas 'gbozas' in the form of love gifts and greetings and if you have, you will agree that sending and receiving Christmas greetings and gifts year after year can be a merry-go-round of sort. In every merry-go-round, the 'merriment' in the 'go' reaches a peak and then starts to diminish with each round unless something new happens in each round to add value and replenish the diminishing excitement. This is a law of life.

If Christmas is limited to a routine of shopping and spending or just sending and receiving gifts and greetings, the routines soon overshadow the JOY that Christmas brings and in the end, Christmas seasons simply pile up to a heap of Christmas go-rounds without value. I'm sure you want a Christmas that's better and brighter than that. I do.

I am suggesting that you enjoy this Christmas without the rounds of activities that have left you emotionally busted, spiritually bloated and financially broke in the previous rounds. Do it just the same way you eat fish and leave the bones. Get out of the Christmas routines and rounds and go a step higher -encounter love in a new dimension. Each Christmas should bring newness of hearts after all, or shouldn't it?

I encourage you to identify and celebrate a positive difference in this Christmas. Seek out and engage in activities and missions that add value to you and others. Reflect on the ultimate Gift of Christmas-Jesus Christ- and savor the JOY he brings. If you haven't, make efforts to experience the JOY of salvation and make Jesus your LORD, you'll be happy you did. Seek a quiet moment in the busyness of the season to meditate on the depth of LOVE that made a man choose death penalty; not for his own sins but for yours and mine. That's what Jesus Christ did for us. Choose to discover in this Christmas, the benefits that are yours when you receive the Father's Gift of LOVE. 

Understand how to grow in the LOVE of Christ and refuse to mark the same love spot you

have always been in the previous years. Avoid those activities that leave you exhausted and wondering if Christmas is all about food, trees, balloons, ribbons and lights bulbs. Let true LOVE happen in your heart. Stay away from mindless movies of sinful moments. Control your appetite for food and pleasures when eating and drinking with friends and family especially if these will make you sick afterwards.

Have a MERRY Christmas; Leave the Go-Rounds.

MAKE THE MOVE

tHE journey from wilderness to wonderland begins with a step. There is no arrival without departure. It is one thing to dream but it is another to take the necessary steps towards that dream. If we want change we must move for change. We cannot sit still and expect things to change. Nothing moves until you move. Martin Luther King Jr. stated it this way: “If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.” The only way to arrive at your desired destination is to move from your current location.

Did you know that the number one reason many people are where they are is because they are where they are? God designed mankind for movement. That is why he gave us minds and feet. We were designed to change our locations and situations by freewill movement. We were not designed to sit still and be acted upon. In my beginner science class, I learned that one of the characteristics of living things is movement. All living things survive and thrive by movement. Non-living things don’t survive or thrive; they diminish over time because they simply remain where they are situated until they are moved by someone or something. You and I are living beings made in the image of the almighty God. No matter where we may be, things can begin to change for us the moment we start to make the necessary move.

I learned this truth from scripture. It works for everyone and in every situation. I believe it works because God is the one that make things happen. But He expects us to move first. Before God made Abraham the father of faith, Abraham had to move from his relatives. Before God made a path through the red sea, the Israelites had to go forward. Before God led Israelites to the promised land they had to leave Egypt. Before God ended the recession in Samaria, some beggars had to move from their sitting position at Gate of Samaria

I like one African proverb which says “20 children don't play together for twenty years”. Time sorts them as they move along the road of life.  Some may choose to remain where they were born while others will move on to discover higher horizons. Some will climb to the top of the ladder while some may choose to hang on to bottom the ladder. I am aware that some people blame the disparity of outcomes in life on fate or circumstances outside their control. While some circumstances are obviously outside our control, I know from experience that when you start controlling things you can control, you free yourself from the hold of the things you cannot control. But if you sit still, everything around you will equally become still. Nothing moves until you move.  

You can start moving towards your next destination today by taking the following suggested three simple steps:

1. See the DIFFERENCE. Reflect on your current situation in the light of your desired destination. How do you see the difference? Would you rather be here or be there? Your ability to see the difference between where you are and where you desire to be will give rise to first surge of energy you need to rise up from wherever you may be.

2. Make the DECISION. Decide that you can and will change. Decide where that change destination looks like. Decide which route you will take, the price you will pay and how much sacrifice you will make. Decide whom you will move toward and whom you will move away from. The ticket to your Destination is in your decision. What are your values? What is your passion? What is the alarm ringing in your head every morning and night? Make the decision to respond to that alarm and this wake up call.

3. Respond to your DESIRE. All wishes without work will end up as ashes and all dreams without a drive will end up as dust.  Get up. Start to drive towards your destination. Do what you have to do. Pay that bill. Read that book. Go to school Clean the house. Learn that lesson. Quit that habit. Say no to that pressure. Write that article. Make that phone call. Make that visit. There is time to rest and recharge but there is also time to reflect and refire. Respond to your desire to become a better you. Start Today!

What Does Freedom Mean To You?

Does the word RESTRICTED provoke a feeling of defense in you? If so, you are clearly in the majority. In our day, more and more people 'fight' for freedom wherever and whenever any sign of restriction is seen or deemed imposed. For most people, freedom is the absence of any form of hindrance or restriction. Therefore, the 'fight' for freedom is essentially a fight against restrictions. Yes, we all detest bondage and we must strive to overcome obstacles that stand in our way of progress. However, there is a challenge. In our fight for the freedom to choose whatever we desire at anytime, anywhere and at any cost; we run the risk of knocking down the walls that were designed to protect us and afford us the freedom we seek.

Take A Second Look At Freedom
Freedom is not the absence of restrictions. Freedom is the discipline to live within certain parameters that are essential for peace of mind and the enjoyment of the full pleasures of wisely selected options.

You would agree that if true freedom meant absence of restrictions, then nobody in the world would be considered free because everybody live under the law and laws are definitely forms of restrictions. Where there is no law there is no freedom. Where there is no boundary there is no peace. Free nations exist within geographical borders and it's citizens are governed by boundaries of rules and regulations that are essential for order and peaceful co-existence. Organizations operate within boundaries of specific products and services, core values, policies and procedures as well as government regulations and community requirement. Families exist within family boundaries and communities exist within community boundaries. Without the law, there would be no order and life would be chaotic. Think about it, would you and I be able to drive safely on our roads if there were no traffic rules and regulations? Freedom is gained and sustained by following prescribed rules and regulations that restrict the unwanted and safeguard the desired.

This principle of boundary-for-freedom is also true in health, finance and relationships. Wellness, as we know, has obvious requirements and those requirements are the boundaries within which everyone who desire wellness must live. You may choose to eat unripe pineapple, for instance but you won't be free to choose the consequences of the unripe fruit poison. The need to wait for the pineapple to ripen is the boundary within which the enjoyment of the pineapple fruit resides. If you choose to break through that boundary you get a bite of the fruit poison. You may choose to spend in one day all you have earned in one year plus what you hope to earn in the following year but if you choose to pursue freedom that way, you won't be free to escape the hurt of financial slavery. The need to live within your means is the boundary within which your freedom to choose wealth and escape poverty lies. It is important to always keep in mind that while we are free to break the boundary, we are not free to escape the bite. “…whoever breaks through a wall will be bitten by a serpent” Ecclesiastes 10:8b.

Do you fight for freedom by resisting rules and regulations? I'm afraid you cannot find true freedom and peace of mind that way. In normal situations, boundaries and walls are intended primarily for the peace and tranquility of those residing within it and the restriction of enemies outside it. If you find yourself always fighting against rules, regulations and any form of legitimate restriction, ask yourself if you are a friend or enemy to your own peace of mind. Consider this: “Duly constituted authorities are only a threat if you’re trying to get by with something. Decent citizens should have nothing to fear. Do you want to be on good terms with the government? Be a responsible citizen and you’ll get on just fine, the government working to your advantage. But if you’re breaking the rules right and left, watch out. The police aren’t there just to be admired in their uniforms”. Romans 13:1-4 MSG.

Be it nations, organizations, families, communities or individuals, living in freedom requires staying within set boundaries. Rules and regulations are protective boundaries against possible harm; not punitive measures against those for whom they are made. Real freedom is not the absence of boundaries and restrictions but the ability to choose what one desires and refuse what you don't desire. That ability is what we call discipline. The highest form of freedom is the discipline to live within certain parameters that are essential for peace of mind and the enjoyment of the full pleasures of wisely selected options. Freedom resides within walls. Without boundaries, there is no freedom.